Josh Osborne looks at a creative use for your files that end up in the reject bin.

How many times have you looked through your library of images and said "I like that foreground but the rest just isn't working for me" or "that's a nice sky, I wish I had something to go with it"? Heaps right? A while back I was scanning for Glenn (glennmckimmin.com) and he was asking me to pick out images that I liked. Immediately I started sorting them into a "these are great" pile and the "these are missing something" ones. The problem was that I really liked elements in the reject pile and didn't want to see them go to waste. So with a little imagination and some time this is what I did. The funny thing is that this image hangs proudly as a 50inch print in my house and while many people comment on the beauty of this photo, someone interestingly enough has even claimed they have been there? I never had the heart to burst their bubble tell them that the location existed only in my imagination but it still made for a funny moment.

Click on the link below for the step through process including pictures.

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Many people still don't really know how to set up their files in order to take advantage of our Print Ready Pricing, this video will walk you through the process, including sending your files to us using our brand new Yousendit Dropbox.

Enjoy!

I was prompted to think about this the other week when a client of ours had placed an order for an image from an old ilfochrome file. The file was scanned and prepared by us (CFL) a number of years back. Naturally, as the file was prepared for Ilfochrome and not Fuji flex, the file would require a colour profile to adjust the colour space to match the new printing material. I opened the old file and the colour just popped out at me, I mean it looked great. However I still needed to assign the profile and I knew that, while it would make the image accurate to what was previously printed on ilfochrome, from experience it would also significantly dull the image's colour (see example).

Have you ever started editing an image and after hours of frustration, three different attempts and a headache, given up saying, "i'll come back to this", but never do?

I have spoken to lots of creative photographers who, with Photoshop and other such products becoming easier to use and more readably available, feel the need to master and become the whole creative solution for their images. Most however when they are truly honest with themselves struggle with being too attached to their images. They love the process of taking the photo but when it comes to seeing the potential within that image or fine tuning it for printing they are left frustrated.

So why would you invest in someone else doing your photo's when you have the means to do it yourself? Ken Duncan can often be quoted saying "if you want to be the best use the best" but what sets anyone, or in Ken's case CFL, apart to make them the best? Think about the skill of riding bikes. Lots of people own a bike and even if they haven't ridden one in a long time, at some stage in their life they have probably given it a go, others however, like those you may see on TV, ride all day every day and the bike could almost be seen as an extension of their body. You may be aware if you have used CFL for a while that most of the staff have been bringing the best out of images  (or riding bikes to draw the comparison) everyday for more than 5 years, some individually for 9 and 15 years. You could almost say that seeing and bringing the best out of your images is an extension of who we are.